Database: Real World Examples
Mainstream databases in the forefront of bettering industry best practices. With all of the research online instructing on the concept of database development and design along with educational courses focused entirely on the philosophy are there any real-world examples able to illustrate their effectiveness in the business world? The answer is quite simply, absolutely! In today’s educational and business arenas stand three of the industries best-known and most well-respected databases able to achieve better business processes and operations with goal to enhance how the average person views and interacts with their data. These three acknowledged databases are HEAT and Goldmine (both produced by Front Range Solutions, Inc. based out of Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Pinnacle Gradebook (produced by Excelsior Software, Inc. based out of Greeley, Colo.). It is the actions of these database system enabling companies to change there operations for the better and redirect the way the average person views databases. ---- HEAT HEAT software is a full-featured, out-of-the-box customer service and support solution enabling organizations globally to streamline employee and customer support interactions through the use of a simple Borland Database (operated in a Microsoft SQL environment) and easy-to-use interaction forms. This affordable, easy-to-use, practical solution helps companies gain control of their service and support issues and resolve them quickly and efficiently. HEAT provides its customers with an ideal combination of ease of use, advanced features and customizability to help desk professionals and the people they support. With over 8,000 customers world-wide, HEAT provides: •Intuitive wizards for fast implementation. •A highly customizable interface; no programming required. •Easy-to-use call logging, tracking reporting and management features. ) In 1999, 25% of the US Fortune 100 companies used HEAT and currently, over 90% of HEAT customers renew their annual maintenance agreement, which is 30% higher than the industry average. Today, companies worldwide entrust the software to further their operations and prepare their businesses for the New Economy. ) ---- GoldMine ‘Reduce Costs, Shorten Sales Cycles, Drive Revenue’ Used in many of today’s leading companies, many times alongside HEAT, GoldMine provides a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution to businesses who would normally be ‘working in the dark.’ Designed specifically for small and mid-sized businesses focused on acquiring and developing their customers. Provided are powerful features that reach far beyond personal contact managers, enabling centralized customer information and data sharing across any organization. Helping to manage the sales process by organizing sales activities, right down to the last detail, and even monitoring future, current and past sales activities with embedded forecasts and pipeline reporting GoldMine is yet another example of a database solution used to better the corporate philosophy. GoldMine software and database features include: •QuickStart Wizard - First-time users will quickly get up to speed with a friendly wizard that stepping through installation and set up. •My GoldMine - A personalized desktop displays active content of the users choosing in a consolidated, fully customizable view. •Opportunity/Project Manager Wizards – Manage the sales pipeline with multi-sales forecasting logic. •XML Import/Export - Wizards make integration simple with other business XML-ready applications and databases fast and simple. •GM+ View Tab - Embeds rich data into contact records including photos, graphic images or sound files. •Contact Search Center – A window to find contacts and prospects quickly and easily with new user-defined, multi-column sorting. •Back-up and Restore Wizards - Built-in tools ensure that your customer information is safe and secure. (http://www.sagasolutions.com/goldmine.aspx/ ) Much like HEAT, companies worldwide entrust this software to track, manage, and grow there CRM capabilities to reach a more prosperous, successful, and guaranteed future. ---- Pinnacle Gradebook Implemented throughout school systems globally Pinnacle Gradebook enables teachers and school administrators the ability to effectively and efficiently enter grades, attendance, and much more into a database architecture. More than a database is several other Pinnacle programs that interact with the database to achieve an IP and web gradebook application to track grades remotely, the ability to generate reports of attendance and end-of-term grades, along with the ability for students as well as parents to track all of their child’s school statistics over the web. This relatively easy-to-understand database model has enabled the growth and success of educators as well as students in the entire educational industry. A wide-scale user of the system is Miami-Dade County Schools whom boasts about the outstanding quality of the system with the following success factors generated from the use of the system after a 2002 review at six of the district’s schools: • Eighty-three percent of survey respondents either “strongly agreed” or “agreed” that using the Pinnacle Gradebook has reduced the time spent on required paperwork. • Eighty-seven percent “strongly agreed” or “agreed” that Pinnacle Gradebook is “an effective classroom management tool.” • Nearly half (48%) agreed that Pinnacle Gradebook enabled them to spend more time on instructional preparation, and 44% characterized the Gradebook as having a “substantial” impact on available instruction time each day. ) With the success of Pinnacle’s Gradebook the educational industry now has a process to actively track, manage, and process student classroom actions targeting towards achieving improved student educational opportunities; yet another industry positively affected database development. ---- To summarize, with so many philosophies and educational opportunities centered on the arena of database development there are truly exceptional examples of individuals who have created successful corporations from the methodology. It is the action of these individuals and those in the craft who not only expand the art but allow others to profit from the technology which is growing everyday. With the knowledge gained from companies such as these it is truly great to see a working environment from the education that you may have achieved. So be the change that you wish to see; take the database knowledge gained in databases and apply it to society; with its application great things are happening.